BOSTON -- The state's highest court has rejected a request for compensation for a Brockton man who served seven years in prison for murder before he won an appeal and an acquittal.

Jesus Silva Santiago, 39, was locked up in 2003 and convicted in 2006 of first-degree murder in the shooting death of Eugene Monteiro, 25, of Boston, outside Mike's Lounge on Montello Street.

The state Supreme Judicial Court overturned the conviction and life sentence and ordered a new trial. In 2010, he was found not guilty.

In 2012, Santiago filed a request for compensation from the state for the time he served in prison, but a judge dismissed his case. On Thursday the supreme court upheld that decision.

"The plaintiff's conviction was overturned due to the impropriety of the prosecutor's closing argument," the court ruled. "While the misstatements here prejudiced the plaintiff, and indeed resulted in the reversal of his conviction, they did not 'tend to establish [his] innocence.'

"The jurors here heard all of the evidence; nothing was kept from them. On these facts ... relief is not available, and the plaintiff's claim was properly dismissed."

This week, the city of Boston reached a $5 million settlement with a man who served 15 years for a killing that he testified he didn't commit. Shawn Drumgold filed a wrongful conviction lawsuit in 2004, a year after his murder conviction in the 1988 gang crossfire shooting of 12-year-old Tiffany Moore was thrown out when a key witness recanted.